GBEP Newsletter n.2 - 4 February 2008

Second-generation biofuels are still some years from commercial production, much effort and funding is being poured into research and development because of the social, economic and environmental benefits they could offer. As part of this process, the Global Bioenergy Partnership (GBEP) and Italian company Mossi & Ghisolfi (M&G) have organised a conference to discuss the outlook for second-generation bioethanol technologies.

The latest US energy legislation, which increased fuel efficiency for cars and will phase out the use of incandescent light bulbs, set a long-term challenge to the country’s bioenergy industry: to transform today’s research programmes and pilot projects into mass production of second-generation biofuels within the next decade and a half.

Royal Dutch Shell Plc, Europe’s largest oil company, raised hopes about the possibility of industrial-scale production of biodiesel from algae when it announced it would invest in a pilot plant in Hawaii.

The Chinese government, seeking to tackle mounting food inflation, is offering financial support to biofuel producers and farmers who use non-food crops such as cellulose, sorghum or cassava as feedstocks.